Fire damages home in Pearcy

An unoccupied home on Parkway Square in Pearcy was damaged by fire Wednesday morning, according to Autumn Carlisle, fire chief/director of operations of the 70 West Fire Protection Association.

Firefighters were dispatched to a fire at 109 Parkway Square at around 8:38 a.m., and once there found smoke and flames visible from the front of the residence.

"Units were able to quickly enter and get the fire under control," Carlisle said. The fire damage was confined to the main living area of the residence with some heat and smoke damage throughout.

The residence was not occupied at the time of the fire, but the homeowners did arrive while firefighters were on scene, she said. The American Red Cross was contacted to provide the family with some immediate assistance.

Piney Fire Department provided mutual aid, and the Garland County Sheriff's Department also provided assistance while on scene. LifeNet provided an ambulance to standby for fire crews. There were no injuries.

While the cause of the fire was under investigation Wednesday afternoon, Carlisle said she did not think the recent unusually cold temperatures were a factor in this particular fire.

"Our units were fortunate that we only had a couple of calls during the severely cold weather," Carlisle said. "Typically, we do see increases in chimney fires, space heater related incidents, and carbon monoxide incidents during severe cold weather, but that was not the case in our district this round."

Carlisle said 70 West tries to "provide prevention information to our community to reduce the number of these type incidents this time of year."

"One of the impacts that is not usually thought of during severe cold is that when our trucks, especially tanker trucks, are responding to incidents and the weather is below freezing there are tendencies to see a little bit of water on the road, particularly in curves or where our trucks have made turns and also where they have refilled. This can quickly freeze and we do try to be mindful and if we see that it is a hazard we will call out the road crews to come and sand or treat the area affected," she said.

"We can also have issues with ice on scene with surfaces becoming slick and with ice in our hoses as we get equipment returned to service on the trucks."